~19:36-20:07 UT: Lightning within 10 km of LL
System was armed late (unaware of storm over LL until too late)
Several balloon launches were conducted directly into the storms
(may be best NSSL data of the summer)

At least 2 balloon launches were made ~21 UT
~20:53- UT: Infrequent loud thunder heard from close (overhead) storm.
Power failure at 21:28 UT ended the data acquisition session prematurely.
~21:4? UT: Tree at NE corner of house was struck by lightning.
Slow antenna (only ~15 meters from strike point!) was knocked out of commission
for a day and was not fully functional until Day 217 (some gain settings
were inaccessible).

System was armed late for 2nd time interval (host computer was down
when lightning began). First CG of the day within 10 km of LL was
at 22:00:01 UT.
~23 UT: Thunderstorm overhead at Lemitar. Gains 2 &
3 were unavailable, so Gain 1 (very insensitive) was used much of the time
(Gain 4 for the rest) that the storm was overhead.

A close storm from late yesterday continues to produce lightning
and eventually begins to decay. A +220 LLP CG was produced
at 00:47:03 UT toward the end of the storm's lifetime. Unusually
loud rolling thunder was heard from the flash 15 seconds later (5 km to
closest channels).

~18:24-?: Lightning within 10 km of LL
18:50:43 UT: +40 LLP "CG" 2.3 km N of LL19:03:59 UT: -920 LLP CG 7 km NNW of LL~21 UT: Storm with 15 km height observed by Socorro Radar just East
of Rio Grande within 1st trip echo.
There were a total of 5 balloon flights from LL (all after 21
UT?).
Post analysis of Edot data by LANL revealed the
presence of an energetic +BP at 21:06:20.925 UT within the 15 km tall storm.
Analysis of joint slow/fast antenna data showed that the +BP was delayed
by at least 30 ms from the start of the flash as indicated by the onset
of the slow delta-E.

18 UT: The gain adjustment on the slow antenna
now functions properly (74145 chip was replaced after being damaged by
close lightning strike 1 week ago)~23:34 UT: Storm less than 10 km to South.
Storm passed almost overhead around the change of UT day.

Nighttime thunderstorms near or within LMA network. Some energetic
+CGs were associated with some of these storms (EOSO??). Missed 110
minutes of data (3:36-5:26 UT) in part due to disk filling up.
19:04 UT: Voltage divider no longer used in log-RF
circuit (now straight through). It will remain this way until a later
change...~21 UT: Socorro radar mapped storm in 2nd trip with good depolarization
data. Storm was to E of radar.

5:27-5:40 UT: FORTE overpass. Max EL: 59 deg., WSW. Some
lightning within region, but not within LMA network?
~14 UT: A couple of morning thunderstorms passed overhead.
Storms appeared to be moving quickly out of the SSW towards the NNE.
14:48-15:07 UT: Several horizontally extensive "propagating +CG
flashes" within the LMA (+320 LLP at 14:48:53 struck only 4 km south
of LL). These might have produced sprites (had they occurred at night).
~15:30 UT: Air space for LL opened - last balloon launch of 1999?
Socorro radar broke down during the morning hours. No more data
for 1999?

0:04-0:26 UT: CGs within 10 km of LL (according to NLDN)
0:39-0:49 UT: TRMM overpass. Max EL: 86 deg. Some lightning
activity within the LMA during the overpass, though activity was on
the decline.
>17 UT: Lightning within 10 km of Lemitar.Big anvil discharges were occurring during the decaying phase of a
storm to the south in the late afternoon.

>16 UT: One storm was at or within the reversal distance during
the morning hours. Remaining storms were beyond and all may have
been outside the LMA.
>22 UT: Some particularly active storms formed just E of the Rio Grande
and Escondida (to SE). Overall flash rate was every 4 secs at
most active stage.

System was armed at night in case of a balloon launch from Ottumwa,
IA by Gar Bering et al. Was informed later that a balloon launch
did occur, though digital telemetry was lost (audio was OK though).
The system was also armed at night so as to capture +CG waveforms from
<200 km range. Low light level video (mostly out of focus)
was also acquired, but only one energetic +CG was captured on video (a
+1040
LLP; all others were missed).
17:11:33 UT: A possibly horizontally extensive "propagating -CG
flash" within the LMA was accompanied by somewhat loud thunder.
There was no slow antenna activity noted before or after this event (within
1/2 hour). One of the -CGs struck about 8 km W of LL, while others
were >25 km to the NE of the lab. There was no other CG activity
within 100 km of LL in either the preceeding or following 30 minutes.
Unfortunately, the slow antenna went way off scale (estimate -4.5 V min)
during the event. Fast antenna data should still be OK.
>17 UT: Storm formed overhead and produced some moderately close
lightning (mostly IC activity, though?)

5:42:35 UT: +420 LLP 30 km WNW of LL produced a nice static field change
here at Lemitar (in spite of >60 km distance)
No lightning was within 60 km range, so almost all static field changes
were small (with the exception of the one noted above).

Distant sferics from a large sprite-producing MCC over Nebraska
were recorded from before dusk until well past midnight. At one point,
the +CG flash rate of >140 LLP strengths was very high: about 20 per minute!
The FMA Research log
states that salmon-colored sprites were visible to the naked eye. Gar Bering
attempted a balloon flight, but aborted due to a payload failure after
balloon deployment.

>4 UT: Nighttime storms formed over the Rio Grande Valley and some
of these storms passed nearly overhead (>7 UT). A moderate flash
rate of 1-per-30secs was not uncommon for this small storm cluster.
>22 UT: Active late afternoon storms produced lightning within 20 km
of LL to the W and NW. One NLDN -CG came within 1 km of LL (Annex)
at 23:40:59 (it was the only one within 10 km of LL all day).
23:55:14 UT: +BP with saturated log-RF (bright). Post
analysis shows significant IC static delta-E of 2 V/m at G7, but signal to noise
ratio is not good enough to discern any prior static field change.

Some storms formed within the LMA, particularly during the late afternoon
hours. Good slow antenna data for these storms. The flash rate
was moderate at 1-per-25secs.
There was both a high elevation FORTE and TRMM overpass (at
separate times), but flash rate was low or non-existent near or within
the LMA for both overpasses.
~19 UT: Changed whip on antenna (shortened it
to same length as other LMA antennas) and replaced the resistive 50-75
ohm converter at the antenna with a "normal" 50-75 ohm converter.~22 UT: The resistor on channel 1 (log RF) of
the A/D board was changed so that the new voltage range is about +/- 0.5
V (about half of previous). The normal voltage divider was placed
back into the circuit. Configuration should now match that of the
LMA digitizer in terms of voltage/dBm.

2:31-:47 UT: Overhead FORTE overpass while there were storms
within the region, but little or no activity within the LMA. LMA
data is probably good regardless and good electric field data was acquired
for the flashes.
There was some lightning activity within the LMA network during the
afternoon, though the storms were short lived.
Hurricane Bret (category 4 at its peak) made landfall during the evening
hours (CT). Distant sferics were presumably recorded from this system.

There were some overhead storms during the early evening hours.
Good slow antenna data was acquired for these close discharges.
The close storms produced some horizontally extensive spider lightning
discharges and +CGs during the late phase of the storm system.
Some of these +CGs might have been sprite-producers.

There were some storms within the LMA during both the early and late
afternoon. Slow antenna field changes were visible every 8 seconds
at one point for the late afternoon storms.
A few of the late afternoon storms were within 10 km of Lemitar
(closest
CGs were about 4 km away).

1:04-1:16 UT: Five +CGs struck at various times at distances of 15-23
km to the WSW-W of LL from (presumably) a decaying storm region.
There was 1 or 2 storms which formed to the NW of LL just ouside? the
LMA, but much of this activity during the early afternoon was missed (and
was unimpressive anyways).

There was a little activity within the LMA both during the late morning
and the late afternoon hours.
A very active line of storms formed to the ENE during the late afternoon.
At one point, static field changes were as frequent as 1-per-3secs!
Weak LLP +CGs were produced by these storms, but were infrequent.
There was a moderatly close storm(s) which formed while the
more distant very active storms were being recorded. The slow
antenna was left in an over-sensitized state for much of this time
period for the closer activity so that the more distant stomrs could be
optimally recorded (and also so that a possible "invisible" initial leader
from the closer storm(s) could be better detected).

Some storms formed both nearby and overhead at Lemitar around
local midnight and also formed elsewhere within the LMA around that time.
The first lightning from the "overhead" storm may have been a CG which
struck within 2 km range at 6:17:04 UT (the loud thunder from which prompted
me to arm my system!)
The lightning activity during the afternoon was outside the LMA, but
data was acquired anyways. The late afternoon activity was primarily
to the East. Interstingly, the first CG from these storms
struck
a considerable distance away from the others according to the NLDN
and visually it appears that the discharge might have first propagated
into a smaller cumulus congestus before striking the ground (see digital
picture acquired approx. 10 mins later).

There was probably some remnant IC activity from a storm left over
from the previous UT day. The storm was situated near or beyond the
eastern edge of the LMA. One IC produced a +180 LLP only 18 km
to the south, well away from any preceeding NLDN-indicated activity.
There was very little activity near or within the LMA for the rest
of the day, though one storm formed only 10 km (or less) to the ENE during
the late afternoon. This and a subsequent? storm to the ENE were
short-lived and had a low flash rate.

There was some moderately close lightning associated with a fast-moving
storm during the early afternoon. However, high winds and rain put
considerable noise on the slow antenna. The lightning flash rate
was also low (<1-per-minute).

17 UT: Master A/D Board was rejumpered for 1
microsecond sampling and sferic A/D board was rejumpered for 1 microsecond
averaging.There was some lightning activity within the
LMA, but none of it was particularly close to the Lemitar station.
Satellite imagery showed that the storms were strongly sheared due to high
winds aloft.20:44:14 UT: A +200 LLP appeared within a
region of -CGs. +BP? This event was near the periphery
of the LMA network and should have been within range for slow antenna static
delta-E measurements.+CGs were occurring to the south of LL
at > 30 km range, possibly in a stratiform region (guessing from visual
observations, but not certain) near the end of the day and into the next...

Some active fast-moving storms passed to the north at close
range both in the early and late afternoon. A portion of the
1st storms' approach was missed since I was away from home during the late
morning and noon hours. The fast movement of the storms made it difficult
to keep the proper gain setting, which resulted in under- and especially
over-sensitivity at times.

There was one storm within the LMA during the early afternoon hours.
The storm was centered approx. 13 km N of LL. Unfortunately, the
first discharge(s) from this storm were missed.
The remaining activity was outside the LMA and produced at best weak
and infrequent static field changes.

A very active region of storms passed over Langmuir Laboratory during
the afternoon. A flash rate as high as 1-every-4secs was
observed while it was still within the LMA. However, most
of the static field changes were small due in part to the range (>30 km)
from the sensor.
A +410 LLP +CG struck within about 1 km of S. Baldy prior to
the passage of the active storms. It was the 2nd of 2 +CGs within
the same general region. The point of origin of the +leaders is not
clear from the NLDN data (was it an anvil, decaying storm, etc..?)

A line of thunderstorms passed overhead during the afternoon
(though most of the line was to the north). A flash rate as high
as 1-every-5secs was observed about 45 minutes before they passed
overhead while the storms were within the LMA .

There was no activity within 90 km range during the first observation
period.
Slow/fast antenna calibration was performed late
today (continuing into tomorrow UT day). Lightning during the calibration
interval was >150 km away according to the NLDN, but the lightning was
in several different directions (good for azimuthal dependency check).

A small but potent line of storms passed through the LMA during the
late afternoon, moving in an ESE direction. When the storms passed
over Socorro (N. part?), it was producing lightning (mostly ICs)
every 5 seconds, all of which were within the reversal distance.

At the start of the UT day, the compact "line" of storms which
had passed through Socorro starts to move beyond the reversal distance
while the flash rate appears to slow. As it moved further away, the
flash rate picked up again and reached a maximum of 1-every-3secs
(50 sec avg.) according to the slow antenna!
Later during the evening, another cluster of storms passed through
Socorro county, but were south of the LMA. Small static field changes
were recorded form the storms at >= 50 km range, though infrequent larger
field changes were seen (presumably from lightning channels propagating
NNE through the anvils).

There were several storms within 10 km of LL during the mid-
and late-afternoon hours. The initial lightning sequence was captured
for these storms. The lightning flash rate was moderate at about
1-every-20secs.

A storm at the start of the UT day continues to produce lightning
within the LMA with some <10 km from LL, but the storm
is moving away from LL. The flash rate was still moderate at up to
1-every-15secs.
During the late afternoon, a fast-moving storm came as close as about
15 km to the north and dissipated. A moderate flash rate of up to
1-every-12secs was observed prior to dissipation. The storm never
came within the LMA, but was not far from the periphery.
22:21:41 UT: The final flash from the storm (according to the
NLDN) may have produced both a +CG and a -CG. A +140
LLP, 14 km to the north, was followed in the next second by a -60 LLP,
12 km to the north (real +CG? -CG tower trigger?...)

A small line of storms passed overhead during the late afternoon.
The storms were accompanied by heavy rain and an unusually strong gust
front. The gust front stirred up so much dust that the
visibility dropped to under 1/4 mile at one point. The slow
antenna fluctuated wildly due to the airborn dust and this nearly rendered
it useless for several minutes. Surprisingly, the lightning flash
rate was unimpressive (typically about 1-every-30secs) for this
strong line of storms.